Zen Poetry
Selected Quotations
I
My daily activities are not unusual,
I'm just naturally in harmony with them.
Grasping nothing, discarding nothing...
Supernatural power and marvelous activity -
Drawing water and carrying firewood.
- Layman Pang-yun (740-808)
The wind has settled, the blossoms
have fallen;
Birds sing, the mountains grow dark --
This is the wondrous power of Buddhism.
- Ryokan, (1758-1831)
Dewdrops on a Lotus
Leaf
Translated by John Stevens
The mind of the past is ungraspable;
the mind of the future is ungraspable;
the mind of the present is ungraspable.
- Diamond Sutra
Nothing in the cry
of
cicadas suggests they
are about to die
- Basho
Unfettered at last, a traveling monk,
I pass the old Zen barrier.
Mine is a traceless stream-and-cloud life,
Of these mountains, which shall be my home?
-
Manan (1591-1654)
The Penguin
Book of Zen Poetry
Translated by Lucien Stryk and Takashi Ikemoto
My legacy -
What will it be?
Flowers in
spring,
The cuckoo in summer,
And
the crimson maples
Of autumn ...
- Ryokan
(1758-1831)
Dewdrops on a Lotus
Leaf, p.143
Translated by John Stevens
Finally out of reach -
No bondage, no dependency.
How calm the ocean,
Towering the void.
- Tessho's death poem
How boundless the cleared sky of Samadhi!
How transparent the perfect moonlight of the Fourfold Wisdom!
At this moment what more need we seek?
As the Truth eternally reveals itself,
This very place is the Lotus Land of Purity,
This very body is the Body of the Buddha.
- Song of Meditation, Hakuin Ekaku Zenji
Zen Poetry: Links, Bibliography and Resources
It is too clear and so it is hard to see.
A dunce once searched for a fire with a
lighted lantern.
Had he known what fire was,
He could have cooked his rice much sooner.
- Joshu Washes the Bowl, The Gateless Gate #7
Zen Flesh,
Zen Bones, p. 176
Translated by Paul Reps and Nyogen Senzaki
Opening bell
echoes from the canyon walls --
raindrops
on the river.
The sounds of rocks bouncing off rocks;
the shadows of trees traced
on trees.
I sit, still.
The canyon river chants,
moving mountains.
The sermon spun on the still point:
dropping off eternity,
picking up time;
letting go of self, awakened
to Mind.
- Michael P. Garofalo, Above the Fog
To what
shall I compare this life of ours?
Even before I can say
it is like a lightning flash or a dewdrop
it is no more.
- Sengai
A haiku is not a poem, it is not
literature; it is a hand becoming,
a door half-opened, a mirror wiped clean. It is a way of returning
to nature, to our moon nature, our cherry blossom nature, our
falling leaf nature, in short, to our Buddha nature. It is a way in
which the cold winter rain, the swallows of evening, even the very
day in its hotness, and the length of the night, become truly
alive, share in our humanity, speak their own silent
and expressive language.
- Haiku: Eastern Culture, 1949, Volume One, p. 243.
Translations and commentary by Reginald H. Blyth
Spirituality - Meditations Along a Garden Path
Loving old priceless things,
I've scorned those seeking
Truth outside themselves:
Here, on the tip of the nose.
- Layman Makusho
Reciting a small portion of the scriptures,
But putting it diligently into practice;
Letting go of passion, aggression, and confusion:
Revering the truth with a clear mind;
And not clinging to anything, here or hereafter;
Brings the harvest of the holy life.
- Dhammapada
Translated by Balangoda Ananda Maitreya
Found in Entering
the Stream, 1993, p. 69
Edited by Samuel Bercholz and Sherab Chodzin Kohn
In this way and that I have tried to save
the old pail
Since the bamboo strip was weakening and
about to break
Until at last the bottom fell out.
No more water in the pail!
No more moon in the water!
- Chiyono's enlightenment poem,
Zen Flesh, Zen
Bones, 1957, p. 31
Translated by Paul Reps and Nyogen Zenzaki
This is what should be done
By one who is skilled in goodness,
And who knows the path of peace:
Let them be able and upright,
Straightforward and gentle in speech.
Humble and not conceited,
Contented and easily satisfied.
Unburdened with duties and frugal in their ways.
Peaceful and calm, and wise and skillful,
Not proud and demanding in nature.
Let them not do the slightest thing
That the wise would later reprove.
- The Buddha's Words on Kindness (Metta Sutta)
Emptiness in Full Bloom: Flowers in the Sky (Kuge)
Before I had studied Zen for thirty years, I saw mountains as
mountains,
and waters as
waters.
When I arrived at a more intimate knowledge, I came to the point
where I saw that mountains are not mountains,
and waters are not
waters.
But now that I have got its very substance I am at rest.
For it's just that I see mountains once again as mountains,
and waters once
again as waters.
- Ching-yuan
Well versed in the Buddha Way,
I go the non-Way
Without abandoning my
Ordinary person's affairs.
The conditioned and
Name-and-Form,
All are flowers in the sky.
Nameless and formless,
I leave birth-and death.
- Pang Yun, Two
Zen Classics, p.263
Shariputra,
Form does not differ from emptiness;
Emptiness does not differ from form.
Form itself is emptiness;
Emptiness itself is form.
So too are feeling, cognition, formation, and consciousness.
As flowing waters disappear into the mist
We lose all track of their passage.
Every heart is its own Buddha.
Ease off ... become immortal.
Wake up! The world's a mote of dust.
Behold heaven's round mirror.
Turn loose! Slip past shape and shadow,
Sit side by side with nothing, save Tao.
- Shih-shu, 1703
Stones and Trees; The Poetry of Shih-Shu
Translation by James H. Sanford
The Clouds Should
Know Me By Now, 1998, p. 153
Everything
just as it is,
as it is,
as is.
Flowers in bloom.
Nothing to add.
- Robert Aitken, Roshi, As it Is
Fathomed at last!
Ocean's dried. Void burst.
Without an obstacle in sight,
It's everywhere!
- Joho, 12th Century
Zen Poems of China
and Japan, 1973, p. 15
Translated by Lucien Stryk, Takashi
Ikemoto and Taigan Takayama
The body is the tree of enlightenment,
The mind like a clear mirror stand;
Time and gain wipe it diligently,
Don't let it gather dust.
- Shenxiu
Enlightenment is basically not a tree,
And the clear mirror is not a stand.
Fundamentally there is not a single thing -
Where can dust collect.
- Huineng, Sixth Zen Patriarch in China, 638-713
Transmission of
Light, Thomas Cleary, p. 140
Chanting the sutras,
I receive the rice;
The shrikes sing.
- Santoka Taneda (1882-1940)
Mountain
Tasting, John Stevens, p. 90
Zen Poetry: Selected Quotations III
There I was, hunched over office desk,
Mind an unruffled pool.
A thunderbolt! My middle eye
Shot wide, revealing - my ordinary self.
- Layman
Seiken, 11th Century
Zen Poems of China
and Japan, 1973, p. 14
Translated by Lucien Stryk, Takashi
Ikemoto and Taigan Takayama
An explosive shout cracks the great empty sky.
Immediately clear self-understanding.
Swallow up buddhas and ancestors of the past.
Without following others, realize complete penetration.
- Dogen, 1200 - 1253
Moon in a Dewdrop,
p, 218
Translated by Kazuaki Tanahashi
Zen Poetry: Selected Quotations IV
Two come about because of One,
but don't cling to the One either!
So long as the mind does not stir,
the ten thousand things stay blameless;
no blame, no phenomena,
no stirring, no mind.
The viewer disappears along with the scene,
the scene follows the viewer into oblivion,
for scene becomes scene only through the viewer,
viewer becomes viewer because of the scene.
-
Seng-ts'an, 600
Hsin-Hsin-Ming: Inscription on Trust in the Mind
Translated by Burton Watson
Found in Entering
the Stream, p. 149
Edited by Samuel Bercholz and Sherab Chodzin Kohn
Shame on you Shakyamuni for setting
the precedent
of leaving home.
Did you think it was not there--
in your wife's lovely face
in your baby's laughter?
Did you think you had to go elsewhere
to find it?
-
Judyth Collin
The Layman's Lament
From What Book,
1998, p. 52
Edited by Gary Gach
Direct your eye right inward, and you'll find
A thousand regions of your mind
Yet undiscovered. Travel them and be
Expert in home-cosmography.
-
Henry David Thoreau
Walden
Cloud Hands: Taijiquan and Qigong
Step out onto the Planet.
Draw a circle a hundred feet round.
Inside the circle are
300 things nobody understands, and maybe
nobody's ever seen.
How many can you find?
- Lew Welch
From What Book,
1998, p. 124
Edited by Gary Gach
The Three Thousand Worlds
that step forward
with the light snow,
and the light snow that falls
in those Three Thousand Worlds.
- Ryokan, 1758-1851
Ryokan: Zen Monk - Poet of Japan, 1977, p. 103
Translated by Burton Watson
Gone, and a million things leave no trace
Loosed, and it flows through the galaxies
A fountain of light, into the very mind--
Not a thing, and yet it appears before me:
Now I know the pearl of the Buddha-nature
Know its use: a boundless perfect sphere.
- Han-Shan, circa 630
The
Englightened Heart, edited by Stephen Mitchell, p. 30
Cold Mountain Buddhas: Han Shan
Manjusri, a bodhisattva should regard all living beings as a
wise man
Regards the reflection of the moon in water,
As magicians regard men created by magic.
As being like a face in a mirror,
like the water of a mirage;
like the sound of an echo;
like a mass of clouds in the sky;
like the appearance and disappearance of a bubble of water;
like the core of a plantain tree;
like a flash of lightning;
like the appearance of matter in an immaterial realm;
like a sprout from a rotten seed;
like tortoise-hair coat;
like the fun of games for one who wishes to die...
- Vimalakirti Nirdesa Sutra
Spring has its hundred flowers,
Autumn its moon,
Summer has its cooling breezes,
Winter its snow.
If you allow no idle concerns
To weight on your heart,
Your whole life will be one
Perennial good season.
- The Golden Age of Zen, p. 286
Zen Poetry: Selected Quotations
Compiled by Michael P. Garofalo
Potety Notebook III of Michael P. Garofalo
Zen Poetry: Selected Quotations I
Available on the Net since January 2000
April 8, 2005
Cloud Hands: Tai Chi Chuan and Qi Gong